


i woudn't know where to start

by this_is_too_fyuckking_much



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Bisexual Diego Hargreeves, Character Study, Diego Hargreeves-centric, M/M, Pre-Slash, implied - Freeform, maybe? - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:21:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24214342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/this_is_too_fyuckking_much/pseuds/this_is_too_fyuckking_much
Summary: “Oh shit, you’re the guy. The guy from the alley, I was…” The man looks down at his side, “I was stabbed…” Diego raises an eyebrow,“Yeah... you were.” He says slowly, the man rolls his eyes.“Don’t sass me, I’ve been fucking stabbed.”--------------------------------The apocalypse was subverted, due to the unlikely event that these traumatised adults reassured and comforted Vanya, and together are now making an effort to make their family if not a happy one, a healthy one.Diego is still dealing with Patch's death, but he's getting better. His discomfort both in his own home and with his shaken relationship with the police force have him on edge at the best of times, but he's still using his powers to help anyone who needs it. It's on one of these nights that he meets a new friend.
Relationships: Diego Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves & The Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves/Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 131





	i woudn't know where to start

**Author's Note:**

> I have recently began rewatching Umbrella Academy and i have not finished rewatching it so pls excuse if I have some inconsistencies with the plot sorry :/.
> 
> Also I have not rly proofread this, I stuck it into grammarly one (1) time, and I'm pretty sure I end every single piece of dialogue with a full stop even though I know ur not rly meant to do that. Any suggestions for corrections will be welcome :).
> 
> There is a description of an anxiety attack, if this makes you uncomfortable, you might not want to read this. But I don't believe it's too graphic.
> 
> I wrote this for fun and I might add more or I might not we'll see how it goes, :).

If you asked Diego, the guy they got to replace Eudora was a fucking idiot. ‘Detective’ Garrett Adams had just walked straight past the discarded piece of cloth, assumed by Diego to be from the very robbers Mr. Adams was meant to be catching, at least 3 times. Diego almost wanted to walk up and point it out to him but something deep in his chest stuck him to the back of his seat. So Diego just kept watching from his car as finally, one of the sergeants picks it up and shows him. 

It’s not that Diego doesn’t want to help out, goodness knows they need it with this jackass running the show, but it’s only been a month since Eudora and every single time Diego thinks he’s over it, it just hits him in the gut. He knows he should probably talk to someone about it and _make peace_ or whatever but that’s not really something Diego just… does. The closest he gets to confiding in someone is when he and Klaus happen to be sharing their mutual grief and those moments are few and far between. 

But really, Diego just wants to forget about everything and go back to how things were. He just wants to miss Eudora without it affecting his life so goddamn much. Maybe it would be easier to deal with his grief if he didn’t have such an intense need to do right by her and continue helping the police force. But it’s just not the same when it isn’t her, there’d be no banter, no insightful comments, and most definitely no help from Mr. Garrett Adams. _I don’t even know if they’ll let me help anymore_ , Diego thinks to himself. Some guys at the station are cool with Diego but after how easily they were able to imagine that he’d killed Eudora, he doesn’t even know if _he_ wants to be there.

Diego sighs, tearing his eyes away from watching the shop that’d been robbed. Perhaps he’ll just call in to anonymously tip them off about what he found, or perhaps not. Either way, Diego doesn’t look back while he’s pulling out of his park and heading back to the academy.

\---

“Where have you been?” Luther asks, walking towards him from the living room immediately as Diego steps through the door. Diego rolls his eyes, the familiar pang of annoyance hits and he holds his tongue from snapping at Luther. 

“Nowhere.” He murmurs half-heartedly, Luther and the others, except Klaus who is not there, watch as he makes a beeline for the stairs until Five speaks up.

“Nothing to worry about, he was just tailing the cops again.” Diego stops just as he sets his foot on the first step.

“What?” Vanya asks, voicing the confusion on many of the siblings’ faces.

“I don’t think that’s any of your business.” Diego says, about to continue up the stairs but he hears Luther start walking towards him, before Luther can lay a hand on his shoulder Diego turns around and grabs it. Luther, however, isn’t phased and keeps talking.

“We need to be a team, we all wanted to make things better after…” He trails off, not wanting to discuss the near-disaster after Vanya discovered her powers, if they hadn’t sat Vanya down and talked about everything. “What I’m saying is, we can’t keep secrets anymore. That’s how we get into messes like that. What were you doing tailing the cops?” 

Diego narrows his eyes, “I think I’m allowed some fucking privacy, thanks. Without being _interrogated_ or _spied on_.” He shoves Luther’s hand away and looks pointedly at Five.

“We just want to be able to help you, Diego.” Allison says, always the mediator. But Diego is generally just having none of it today,

“I don’t care, leave me alone.” He grumbles as he turns and heads up the stairs. He tunes out the conversations of everyone after he’s gone, knowing that they’ll be talking about his _attitude_ and whatever the fuck else he’s inconveniencing them with. 

But no matter how much Diego tries to keep himself pissed at them, by the time he reaches his room he’s already feeling bad. He _wants_ their family relationship to get better, he really does. But they all make it so difficult when he can’t catch a break and Luther keeps riling him up and no one sees that and Eudora’s fucking gone and suddenly Diego can’t breathe.

His heart races and his head is spinning. He feels sick to his stomach and he rushes to the bathroom, locking the door and kneeling in front of the toilet. _It’s so fucking hot_ he thinks to himself and shrugs off his coat, leaning his head on his hands as he waits for it to pass. It feels like endless waves of nausea and heart palpitations before he remembers to try and take deep breaths. Once he focuses on that, he feels his head starting to clear up and the clenching of his stomach stops. He puts two of his fingers to his throat to check his pulse as he breathes to make sure his heart rate is slowing. Thankfully, he’s relatively back to normal before someone bangs on the door.

“What?” Diego barks, still sat on the floor.

“What are you doing in there, man, I need to pee.” Klaus says from the other side of the door and Diego lets out the breath he didn’t know he was holding. Klaus is just about the only person in the house that Diego wouldn’t feel shitty around at the moment. He gets himself up, taking his coat with him and opens the door.

“There you go, impatient ass…” Diego mutters, moving aside.

“Danke.” Klaus says and heads in after him. Diego takes another deep breath and heads to his bedroom for the second time. He contemplates throwing some knives or darts to calm down but he just knows that someone’s going to come knocking about the noise that it makes so he just collapses onto his bed, hoping he can have a rest and it’ll all be better when he wakes up.

\---

It’s just starting to get darker by the time Diego wakes, he can hear Klaus playing music in his room and the thumping of Luther’s steps as he walks from the stairs to his room. Diego gets up quickly, eager to make an exit when Luther can’t see him. He collects his things and heads out of his room, double-checking that the hall is empty before treading downstairs.

He doesn’t really have any idea of what he’s gonna do until he’s back in his car again. He instinctively turns on his radio hooked up to the police’s frequency and hears about commotion in a club somewhere further downtown. Collecting his knives, he heads off to check it out.

To his dismay, everything seems quiet when Diego gets there. It seemed to have been more intense than it actually was, Diego is about to nonchalantly back out when he catches something deep in the alley behind the club in the corner of his eye, turning his head to see properly he discovers four men cornering someone. He’s getting out of the car as fast as he can but he knows the poor person will be in the shit cause he still has to get over there. He whips out a knife and is about to hurl it at one of them when he notices that while his back was turned, someone stepped in and is now fighting the men. ‘Fighting’ might be the wrong term, he’s getting the shit kicked out of him but the person who was alone has run away.

Diego still throws the knife out and runs into the alley. The knife lodges into one of the men’s knees causing him to drop and yell on the ground, Diego gives him a swift kick in the head before turning and grabbing one of the men off of the lone fighter. Diego head-butts him, sending him to the ground as well. The man who stepped in gets an elbow in the last attacker’s face, forcing him back and a final jab sends him to the ground. 

There’s silence for a few seconds. Diego is about to say something to the man but instead, the man makes a weird noise in the back of his throat and is falling. Diego is just able to catch him and turn him over to see what’s happened. A knife is wedged into his side, probably from one of the attackers. It’s not anywhere near the middle of his stomach but it appears to be quite deep. Diego curses and looks around as if the answer is somewhere there. He would go to the hospital but if he’s found turning up with some who’s been stabbed people might jump to the wrong conclusions, he doesn’t want to be subjected to that again. _Mom can probably fix this_ Diego thinks to himself, _plus, he wouldn’t have to pay for the procedure_. It’s settled then, and Diego hauls the man up (with a bit of difficulty, mind you, the man appears to have more muscle than is expected) and carries him back to his car, checking to make sure he’s not being seen the whole way.

\---

When he pulls into the alley by the side of the academy he forgoes trying to walk around to the front door and instead immediately looks around for a way he can carry the man up the fire escape. Hopefully, Five won’t be in his room and if he is, Diego assumes he won’t really give a fuck.

He ends up having to draw over a sturdy enough bin to stand on, throw the man over his shoulder and slowly grapple his way up the ladder until he can lay the man on the scaffolding. From then he can manage just by bridal carrying him up the steps to Five’s window. As he’s hobbling along he takes a look at the man that stepped in to save that person in the alley. He’s got short, dark brown hair that’s been styled up so that it looks taller _or maybe that’s from the fight_ Diego thinks. The man seems to be generally Diego’s build, maybe a bit smaller. The man might even be slightly taller than Diego, but Diego can’t really tell. He’s wearing a corduroy jacket, black jeans, and a grey shirt that’s stained red at the wound, causing Diego to tighten his hold on the man’s side, compressing the knife to stop the blood, and hastening his walk to the window.

He sticks his head through, expecting Five to yell at him but there comes no sound. Five must be somewhere else at the moment, _all the better_ Diego thinks to himself and makes his way through. _Now what do I do?_ Diego doesn’t want to run into anyone with a stabbed man in his arms but he needs to get Mom to help him. He heads down the stairs and is just swinging around into his room when he hears a gasp, he spins and sees Klaus with his eyes wide.

“Diego, what..?” He begins and Diego shushes him.

“I didn’t do this, Klaus, I-... can you just get Mom?” He says, heading into his room and laying the man on his own bed. Klaus makes a noise of agreement and heads downstairs. Diego rids the man of his jacket and throws it somewhere on the ground, the wound isn’t bleeding too much, the knife has stopped most of the blood but that doesn’t make Diego like the look of it any more. 

Klaus returns with their mum, Diego moves to the side to allow her to set up her medical kit and assess his wound. 

“Diego, honey, when I pull this out can you help me get his shirt off and keep pressure on the wound please?” Diego nods and heads over to help. Once it’s out, their mum looks at it for a second, Diego sneaks a look as well. It’s smaller than he imagined, Diego tries to remember what the knife could possibly have hit if it was wedged in the man but his mum speaks up.

“It shouldn't have hit anything, we’ll wait until it clots and then we’ll dress it. When he wakes up, however, he should probably head to the hospital just in case.” She goes to move Diego’s hand away from compressing the wound.

“I can do it, Mom.” Diego says, but his mum laughs.

“I won’t get tired, silly.” She chuckles and takes over once Diego moves his hands. 

Diego sighs and gets back up to walk over to sit in his chair, next to where Klaus is sitting on the floor in front of his drawer.

“So, what’d you do?” Klaus asks, leaning his head to look at Diego who scowls back at him.

“I didn’t do anything, I told you.” He snaps, looking away. Klaus huffs a laugh,

“What’s got your panties in a twist?” Diego is _incredibly_ close to walking out of there but then Klaus says,

“I know you didn’t fucking _stab_ him but what happened? Where’d you find him?” Klaus mutters weakly. Diego immediately feels bad, Klaus has told him before about how easy it is for him to get drug cravings and small things like Diego taking his bad mood out on Klaus is the last thing that either of them need. Diego slumps in his chair,

“There was some sort of fight called in from the police radio and it looked like it was over but I saw some guys about to beat up some other person, he stepped in just before I got there but he got hurt.”

“Ooh,” Klaus teases, “you’re getting slow Diego, if just anyone can be a vigilante.”

“Does he really look like a vigilante to you?” Diego gestures to the man in question. Klaus shrugs,

“Where was it?” He asks,

“On Foxtrot Avenue, like way out past the shopping centre.” Klaus sits up, raising an eyebrow.

“Near Richmond Street?” He clarifies, Diego furrows his eyebrows.

“Uh, yeah, actually.”

“What was the club called?” He questions again, Diego shoots him an incredulous look, holding out a hand.

“I don’t know dude, it was like Rav-something? I didn’t get a good look at the sign.”

“Ravish? Was it Ravish?” Klaus asks, 

“Yeah sure whatever, why do you care?” Diego asks back, causing Klaus to lean back against the dresser.

“No reason.” He says dismissively, and they both go back to emptily gazing at their mother taking care of the stranger.

“Why’d you bring him here? You could’ve just dropped him at a hospital.” Klaus looks confusedly at his brother.

“They might’ve thought I’d done it.” Diego mutters,

“The hospital?” Klaus says incredulously,

“I don’t know, man, the police probably would’ve gotten involved. I just don’t wanna be accused of anything again. Plus, we have it under control.” Diego pulls out one of his knives and starts fiddling with it, ignoring Klaus.

Klaus leaves shortly after, muttering about a bath with candles. Diego stays and once his mum decides the wound has sufficiently clotted, he heads over to bandage the wound while she washes her hands.

The first press of the cotton to the man’s skin makes a small grunt come out of him, causing Diego to freeze and whip his head around to the man’s face. He’s still unconscious, but he may be waking up. Diego tries to quickly get the bandaging over and down with, he’s almost got it finished when the man starts shifting. Diego accidentally jolts a hand out to secure the man down to stop him from ruining the bandage but the man freaks out and begins struggling.

“Oh shit! Sorry,” Diego exclaims, putting his hands up and moving away from the man. He sits up but immediately cringes and holds his side.

“No, don’t move, you'll make it worse.” Diego says, half-heartedly. The man turns his head, obviously confused at his surroundings, until he reaches Diego.

“Where am I?” He asks, his voice is deep and crackly, probably due to the day he’s just had.

“You’re just at my house.”

“Why?” The man asks, Diego shrugs.

“I don’t know dude, maybe I wanted to help you?” He says, putting his hands down and grabbing the man’s shirt off the ground.

“Do you want me to wash this or not? I can just throw it out and give you one of mine.” He asks, holding it out. The man looks inquisitively at Diego for a moment,

“Oh shit, you’re the guy. The guy from the alley, I was…” The man looks down at his side, “I was stabbed…” Diego raises an eyebrow,

“Yeah... you were.” He says slowly, the man rolls his eyes.

“Don’t sass me, I’ve been fucking stabbed.” He shuffles a bit so he can sit up without hurting himself.

“What’s your name?” The man asks,

“Diego Hargreeves, what’s yours?”

“Theodore Baker, but just call me Ted.” Ted says and holds out his hand. Diego takes it, noticing a tattoo just along his side of some sort of scripture, but Ted drops his hand again before Diego can see what it says. There’s silence for a bit before Diego gestures to the shirt again.

“So, do you want this washed or..?” He asks. Ted nods,

“Ah yes, please, thanks man.” Diego nods and leaves the room. He heads down to the laundry, purposefully not turning his head from straight in front of him for fear that he’d run into someone he’d rather not talk to (which, to be fair, is most people at this point). He’s just putting the shirt in a washing machine when he hears someone enter the room. He turns to see Vanya just inside the door.

“Hey, Diego.” She says softly, Diego nods back at her.

“Hey?” He says, questioning. She takes a few steps towards him,

“I- I just noticed that… I don’t know, you were kind of on-edge earlier today? It’s just- I’m sorry about how they, like, needled you about where you’re going if you weren’t feeling good, I guess I... I can understand.” As Vanya’s talking, the tell-tale creeping of annoyance flares up in Diego’s gut. 

_How could she understand what this feels like? She’s never had to deal with this kind of shit, no one talks to her, no one cares if she doesn’t want to let everyone know about everything that’s going on in her head. And even if she did tell them, they’d all fucking listen to her cause she’s ‘poor Vanya who was left out’. At least she didn’t have to fucking deal with everything we’ve been through-_

Diego takes a deep breath and turns away from Vanya for a second. He knows he’s being unreasonable, they’ve all been fucked up by Dad, Diego has no right to pretend that he knows what Vanya’s been through, and no right to say that her life has been easier than his. Maybe she does know how it feels, who knows. He’s so used to being bitter, jealous, and hurt about Vanya’s other upbringing but after seeing what it had done to her, Diego’s truly been trying to act better towards her. 

It’s been silent for a little while so Diego turns back around to see Vanya still there with a firm but cautious look in her eyes.

“Thanks, Vanya.” Diego says, looking down at one of the tiles on the ground between them. He glances up to see Vanya give a small smile, she’s been doing that a lot more since they started trying to pull the family back together, then she gives a deliberate nod and heads back out the door. 

Diego is surfing on serotonin from the successful interaction with a sibling as he’s walking back to his room, he almost forgets that there’s a man with a stab wound in there.

When he opens the door, he sees Ted on his feet looking at the books on his shelf.

“Hey, what are you doing?” He asks, causing Ted to whip around, eyes wide.

“Sorry, you were gone for a while.” Diego scoffs,

“And you couldn't just sit in bed? You said it yourself, you’ve been stabbed.”

“Maybe I wouldn’t be so interested in my surroundings if I were in a hospital or something.” Ted fires back, but he heads back to the bed anyway.

“I didn’t take you to the hospital because…” Diego doesn’t know how to mention that he’s worried he’s going to be arrested for stabbing him. 

“It’s a long story” Diego settles for, sitting back down on his chair. “Just wait here until your shirt’s done and _then_ I can drop you off at a hospital so you can check to make sure we’re not killing you.” Ted sighs,

“Damn, I wish there was some kind of ‘long story’ that could entertain me while we wait for the blood to come off my shirt in the house that I was brought to instead of a hospital.” Ted turns to stare at Diego, who stubbornly stares right back. Diego finally sighs,

“Fine.” He says, pulling out a knife to move around. Ted immediately looks worried,

“You’re not the one that stabbed me right? That can’t be true, what the fuck.” Diego holds his hands out,

“No! No, I’m not. See this is why I didn’t want to take you to a hospital, ‘cause people are gonna think I did it.” Diego complains, shaking his head.

“...Well you do carry knives around… Are they strapped to you? What the hell?” Ted points out, gesturing towards Diego’s get up. Diego rolls his eyes,

“No, not ‘cause of that-”

“Hm, I think you mean not _just_ because of that.” Ted mumbles, but Diego ignores him.

“I used to be fine with the police, I’d even help them out sometimes... if I could. But then they accused me of murdering an officer.” Diego leaves it at that,

“Why?” Ted asks, Diego takes a deep breath before answering.

“I was, um, meant to help her get these two people but… I was too late. I got there and she was dead and I guess I left fingerprints and stuff.”

“Did they not check that you were there or anything?” Ted asks, looking sympathetic.

“I was handling family business that I wasn’t really able to talk about so they wouldn’t have believed me. Also, they said we had ‘heated arguments’ a lot.” Diego mimes the air quotations, “it was really just how we talked to each other I don’t know how they didn’t see that, I would never have done that to her. But anyway, everyone at the station seemed to be pretty certain I’d killed her so even now, after they’d realised I didn’t, I just… I don’t really know if I can trust them, you know?” Ted nods but stays silent.

“I don’t even know why I’m telling you this…” Diego mutters, embarrassed.

“‘Cause I asked.” Ted says, smiling to ease some of the tension. It’s silent for a bit before Ted speaks up again,

“Thanks, then.” Causing Diego to look up, confused.

“What?”

“For taking me here and fixing me up.” Diego scoffs,

“That was mostly my mom,” he says,

“Your mom knows how to deal with stab wounds?” Ted asks, shocked. Diego chuckles,

“Yeah, my family is not exactly normal, so…” He jokes. Ted has another thoughtful look on his face,

“You said your name was Diego Hargreeves, didn’t you?” Diego’s heart falls slightly, knowing what’s coming. He’d assumed that Ted would figure out who he was once he’d said his name, and he’d been pleasantly surprised when Ted had just kept talking without recognising it.

“You’re one of the umbrella kids.” Ted finishes quickly, he must have seen the pained look on Diego’s face.

“Yep, that’s me.” Diego says, deadpan. Ted looks sorry for bringing it up so Diego just looks away.

“I read that book that your sister wrote.” The reminder of the book still stirs something in Diego and his face sets into a deep frown. He’d felt so exposed in his life after that had come out and hated how it felt like everyone was looking at him and realising how fucked up he was.

“It seemed like it was pretty fucked, what your dad did.” Ted finishes. Diego nods weakly, not really wanting to continue with the conversation.

“Wait so you can do the knife thing? Is that what you did to those guys before?” Ted sounds interested, like most people when they hear about it. Diego looks back at Ted.

“Yep,” He flicks out his knife straight towards Ted but curves it so, instead, it digs itself into his bookshelf where there are countless other marks from previous knives.

“Oh shit, that’s sick. But it must be normal for you by now, huh?” Ted says. 

“Kind of, it definitely comes in handy though.”

“Ah right, you’re some kind of justice warrior vigilante type right? Can’t think of what else would bring you to a fight in the alley behind Ravish.” Ted raises an eyebrow,

“Yeah, something like that.” Diego concedes, Ted whistles,

“That’s crazy, I wouldn’t know how to handle doing something like that.” Diego scoffs,

“Says the guy who took on four people in an alleyway.”

“I was probably drunk,” Ted says, turning away.

“It didn’t look like it to me.” Diego argues, before pulling out his phone to check the time.

“Hey, it’s late, you can sleep here. We’ve got spare rooms I can crash in.” Ted furrows his eyebrows,

“No, no, I can’t take your bed, dude.” He protests but Diego pushes him back down when he attempts to get up.

“As you said before, you’ve been stabbed. I’m fine. In the morning, your shirt will probably be done and then it’ll be alright. Do you have to let anyone know that you’re gone?” Diego asks, just remembering that there’s probably places Ted needs to be. But Ted shakes his head,

“Nah, it’s probably fine. Can you get me my phone from my jacket? I'll just check for messages.” Diego does as he says before waving a hand and bidding Ted a good night.

\---

Diego’s up with the sun, as usual, and immediately heads to the laundry to dry Ted’s shirt. It still has the faded memory of the blood, and obviously the hole in the side, but it’s marginally better than before. He sticks it in the drier and heads to the kitchen to get some toast.

Luther’s in there. It takes a lot to not forget the toast and turn around but Diego is able to not break his stride across the room to get to the bread.

“Diego,” Luther says. Diego hums a greeting, not looking away from his task.

“I didn’t see you get home last night.” Luther goes on, Diego grits his teeth. Something about every single thing Luther says makes it seem like he’s accusing Diego of something, Diego assures himself that it doesn’t mean anything.

“Yeah, I came back a bit late, I had to sort some things out at the gym.” He lies, not wanting to tell him about what had happened the other day. There’s a painful stretch of silence as Diego’s bread is toasted before it pops up. Diego quickly piles it on a plate, forcing himself to wave a hand at Luther as a ‘goodbye’ and nonchalantly hurries back up to his room.

He doesn’t remember that he has an injured man sleeping in his room until he noisily enters after jumping up all the stairs.

“What the fuck…” A pissed-off half-asleep voice says from his bed and Diego freezes in place.

“Ah, shit. Sorry Ted.” Diego says, “I’ll uh… I’ll leave.” Diego opens the door but Ted shakes his head, slowly pushing himself up.

“I’ll be fine, usually once I wake up I can’t get back to sleep.” Ted then gets a better look at Diego. “Is that toast?” He asks. 

“Uh yeah,” Diego takes a piece off his plate and hands it to Ted.

“Wait, you were gonna eat that.” Ted says, however he still reaches for the toast.

“Well, now I’m giving it to you.” Diego says, settling himself back into his chair.

“Thanks…” Ted mutters, before all but inhaling the toast.

“Hungry, are you?” Diego laughs,

“It feels like I haven’t eaten in fucking _ages_.” Ted bemoans,

“That’ll be the whole ‘getting stabbed’ thing.” Diego states, taking a bite of his own toast.

“Yeah, probably…” Ted mutters, Diego looks up to see Ted falling asleep yet again. 

_So much for not going back to sleep_ he thinks to himself, _but that’s also probably part of getting stabbed_. Diego finishes off his breakfast of plain toast before his gaze lands back on Ted sleeping.

He’s still propped up in bed but his head is lolled back, his mouth open. _He almost looks kinda cute…_ Diego thinks to himself, his eyes trail from his face to the way his neck stretches and the dips in his collarbone. Which reminds Diego of the shirt.

Diego stands up, shaking himself out of it and heads back downstairs to collect the shirt from the dryer. When he enters the room, yet again, Ted wakes up.

“I fell asleep again.” He mutters almost in disbelief.

“You’re body’s healing, it’d probably do that much better if you were in a hospital or your own bed.” He holds out the shirt.

“Thank you,” Ted says as he shucks off the covers and pulls on his shirt. He moves his legs over the side of the bed and starts to stand up.

“Woah, do you need some help?” Diego asks, heading over to hold Ted’s arms to help him stand.

“I’m fine, I stood up before to snoop around your stuff, remember?” Ted smirks and gets himself up, where it is then confirmed that Ted is just slightly taller than Diego. Diego clears his throat and picks up his coat,

“Right, come on. We can head to my car.” They go back the same way Diego carried him in, heading up the stairs before Diego curses that Five is probably in his room. He knocks,

“What?” comes the answering gripe from Five,

“I need to use the fire escape, can you let me in?” Diego asks, the door opens and Diego notices Ted’s eyes having to move downwards from where he was expecting someone more Diego’s height.

“Why?” Five asks,

“Why else? I don’t want to be seen by anyone.” Diego answers cryptically. Luckily, Five seems happy with that answer. But as Diego and Ted are entering he asks another question,

“Who’s this?”

“This is Ted,” Diego answers before Ted can say anything, “he’s a friend, he needed a place to stay for the night.” He reaches the window and pulls it open.

“Nice to meet you, Ted.” Five says, surprisingly, holding out his hand. Ted takes it,

“Nice to meet you too, uh…”

“Just call me Five.” Five says,

“Five? Okay, nice to meet you too, Five.” They let go and Diego rolls his eyes,

“Okay, great. See you later, Five.” He says as he steps out onto the fire escape, he holds a hand out to help Ted but it’s ignored.

“I’m not dying, I feel much better now.” Ted says with mirth, an amused expression on his face.

“Fine, sorry for trying to be nice to the guy that got impaled.” Diego says moodily and heads down the stairs. Ted just laughs, and rather than annoying him, that somehow relieves some of Diego’s stress and he cracks a smile himself. They reach the ladder and Diego easily climbs down, he looks up to see Ted looking confused at the ladder.

“Do you need help?” Diego asks,

“No, it’s just… did you _carry_ me up here?” He asks incredulously. Diego’s cheeks heat up and he shrugs.

“I mean, yeah, but what was I meant to do?” He says, feigning nonchalance.

“Use the front door?” Ted says, the ‘duh’ evident in his voice, as he slowly climbs down the ladder. Diego would help him but now he just feels kind of awkward. Instead he pulls out his keys and heads over to the car. He checks and thankfully, no blood got on his seats, then calls Ted over to get in.

“Where do you want to go?” He asks,

“You can drop me off like a block from the hospital, I’ll make up something about having a doctor sister or whatever and say that she helped me.” Diego nods, kicking the car into gear and heading out.

\---

When they get there, something’s been stewing on Diego’s mind more than he’d like to admit. It’s not that he thinks people don’t like him, it’s just that he knows he and his family can be difficult and maybe he shouldn’t have assumed that Ted would be alright with having Five think that they were friends or whatever.

“Hey, I wanted to ask.” Diego starts just as he cuts the engine. Ted looks at him with bright eyes, almost hopeful, which confuses Diego a bit.

“Uh… was it okay that I told Five that we were friends? Like I just met you yesterday and it might be weird to you, I don’t know.” Diego finishes lamely. Ted stares at him for a moment,

“Are you serious?” he asks, almost laughing. “That’s what you’ve been nervously tapping at the wheel for the _whole_ drive?” Diego furrows his eyebrows, about to retort but Ted cuts in.

“Diego, you saved my life. I’m pretty sure that's a good enough reason for me to call you a friend.” Diego shakes his head,

“I told you, my mom did all the-”

“No I mean before that, do you honestly think I could have taken those four guys and _not_ died?” Ted asks. Diego stays silent.

Ted puts a hand on Diego’s shoulder,

“Now let me say this again, thank you, Diego. I’d be happy to call you my friend.” Diego’s heart starts beating faster and he starts to worry that he’s gonna freak out but this time it’s a good kind of adrenaline. He nods and shoots a smile, awkwardly patting Ted’s shoulder as well

“Same for you, Ted.” Diego mutters, prompting Ted to laugh and let go of his arm.

“Here, I’ll give you my number.” He holds out his hand and Diego finds himself unlocking it and handing it over. Once Ted’s done he gives it back,

“We could hang out sometime,” Ted says cheerfully. Diego nods as Ted opens the door and gets out of the car.

“Send me a text so I can have your number as well. See you later, Diego!” Ted flashes one last smile before turning and heading towards the hospital. 

Diego is left sitting in his car, wondering about the pounding in his chest and the heat coming from where Ted’s hand was.

_I’d better send that goddamn text_


End file.
